Epic Cruise - Part 4

Day 5 - St. Thomas 
The ship vibrates a bit while docking so on the 5th day of our cruise we woke up early to the view of St. Thomas beaches.

St. Thomas

 Again, some facts first: St Thomas a Caribbean island part of the U.S. Virgin Islands (together with St. John, St. Croix and Water Island). Its largest city is Charlotte Amalie
It was conquered by the Danes in 1666 and it remained under Danish control until 1917, when it was purchased by the US (because of its strategic position to keep control of the Panama Canal) for 25 million dollars in gold. It is a bit particular since the street names are in Danish, the language is English, the government is American and they drive on the left! Oh, and it's also tax free!

the end of the rainbow is in St. Thomas!

  Since we were here 2 years ago we noticed they built a larger dock for our ship and now there's a Señor Frogs (with a not very inviting green-water pool) outside the dock. We docked at Havensight and walked to Havensight Shopping Mall (there was also a free shuttle but we felt brave - we totally used it on the way back!), there are some Diamonds International and other jewelry and souvenirs shops there. There was a rain storm for like 10 minutes and then the rainbow came!




 We walked towards the town and stopped at the shops in the Yacht Club (they have Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Ferragamo, etc. - but prices are not that low). The walk to the town (Charlotte Amalie) takes 10-15 min. In town visited the Little Switzerland shop where we had bought a watch a couple of years ago (we prefer it compared to Diamonds International). At AH Riise we bought some Clinique products (good deals) and then walked around through the shops and waterfront. We went back to the ship early, it was so hot and the sun was really strong so we spent some time at the pool after lunch at the buffet.

pool and waterslides on the Epic

Back in the ship we tried the purple and green waterslides, fun; didn't get to try the orange/yellow one since there's always a line for that.

Le Bistro

We had dinner at the french Le Bistro (escargot and lamb chops, tarte tatin, everything delicious - wine pairing: rioja, ok). I love this restaurant, it's worth every penny of the $20 charge. The service is great, much more accurate than the rest of the ship, and you dine among works of art like Picassos, Miros, etc.